History YMMV / ANewHopeDanganronpa

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: [[spoiler: Chiaki surviving and bearing a child after the events of ''A New Hope'' becomes a bit more heartwarming when her English VA [[https://twitter.com/christinemcabz/status/1432150502687444998 recently bore a child as well]].]]

* ''A New Hope'' is well-known for its pairing of Chihiro/Miu, but the ship itself would become this trope in the fangame scene. Fangame voice actress Lumisau is known for voicing young male characters in such games (Yuki Maeda in SDRA2, Yukio Satou in Brave Danganronpa) who belong to Chihiro's character archetype. With the release of ''VisualNovel/ProjectEdensGarden'', she would later voice one its characters (Ultimate Golfer Grace Madison), who is almost similar to Miu. To put it simply, she voiced the characters belonging to the fanfic's famous pairing.

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** [[spoiler: For some reason, Dylan and Yukiko might have their real titles (Psychopath and Sociopath) switched out. Both suffer from Antisocial Personality Disorder in some way, however, the way they are presented is somewhat difficult. Dylan, labeled as the Ultimate Psychopath, is a bit more erratic, showing a bit more desire to get the game going and start killing people more than Yukiko. Yukiko, on the other hand, is labeled as the Ultimate Sociopath, is more calm, level-headed, and fake her relationships long enough, When the entire plan is exposed, she maintains her cool. While this difference is somewhat fuzzy (see ''UsefulNotes/TheSociopath''), one definition labels psychopaths as capable of forming weak relationships and being cool-headed, whereas sociopaths are outright erratic and more impulsive. Following this definition, Dylan might have been called the Ultimate Sociopath, while Yukiko would have been labeled Ultimate Psychopath.]]

** [[FlatCharacter Flat characters]]. In a franchise with a wide range of three-dimensional characters each with its own stories, the characters in sequels sometimes feel hollow. Some of them have personalities that revolve around their talents, others are simply there with a certain character quirk placed on them. Not helping are the rushed introductions, all of which sputter out some lines and often feel as if they're ''scripted'' to introduce themselves. Overall, it hurts the immersion in the story and may leave fans out.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** For the first motive, Teruteru Hanamura sees a hostage video involving his mother, [[spoiler: and decides to commit murder to get to her. He targets Himiko Yumeno and lures her into the Aquarium by taking her staff.]]
*** '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler: Teruteru to knock Himiko unconscious to minimize bloodspill, and then throw her body and the staff into the piranha tank to dispose of her easily. Since there wouldn't be any evidence pointing to him, he could've just appeared at the scene and acted as if he was just as shocked at the rest of the students. It'd be just like the second murder of ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa V3|Killing Harmony}}'', but at least Teruteru never had any loose clothing that would be the only evidence present.]]
*** '''Instead:''' [[spoiler: He decides to injure Himiko as quickly as possible, making her bleed everywhere. She is left with enough consciousness to write Teruteru's name [[CouldntFindAPen with her own blood]] before dying. After Hanamura does toss her body into the tank, he realises he has a lot of blood to clean.]]
*** '''Then:''' [[spoiler: Nekomaru Nidai shows up and finds Teruteru cleaning the blood, with a bottle of bleach and Himiko's bloodied staff in his possession.]]
*** '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler: Teruteru to pour the bleach at Nekomaru to distract [[LeaveNoWitnesses and potentially poison him]], then locking himself into a safe room and cleaning himself up.]]
*** '''Instead:''' [[spoiler: He asks Nekomaru to cover for him to save his own skin. Then, when Nekomaru becomes even more aggravated, Teruteru tries to ''attack him.'' Nekomaru, being [[BullyingADragon way bigger and fitter than Teruteru]], ends up defeating him in a CurbStompBattle. If Hanamura valued his life rather than being a DirtyCoward, he wouldn't have ended up provoking Nidai into murdering him, and indirectly causing his [[IHaveYourWife beloved mother]] [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness to get murdered since she was no longer useful without her son]]. Even if Teruteru was unaware of Himiko's hemophilia, he could've at least tried to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere run to a safe place]].]]
** In ''Sea of Tranquility'', [[spoiler: Rene Musil is aware of a few clues to Miyaki and Mikhail's respective murders, like Miyaki being killed by a combat knife and Mikhail being unable to escape the Green House due to its door being chained. He ends up blurting out this information to people [[INeverSaidItWasPoison who were unaware of those factors at the time]] in the trial, not to mention how he would already garner suspicion with the fact that the Ultimate Exterminator would be an expert in pesticides.]]
*** '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler: Rene to explain how he knew about this information and give himself a reasonable alibi to justify his claims. There is still the possibility of him being innocent.]]
*** '''Instead:''' [[spoiler: He begins to act in ways [[NotHelpingYourCase that a true culprit would act]], such as flat-out refusing to explain himself and saying things like "I will not die in this place", "You people can't touch me" and "Don't you dare vote for me" as if he knew he was going to be executed. Then he enters a VillainousBreakdown and demands for everyone to vote for the ''"damn air head"'' or the ''"snake bitch"'' rather than himself, and everyone becomes suspicious enough to vote for him. Because of his inability to prove his alibi, Rene ends up being the first to be executed.]]
** The Despairs [[spoiler: have captured a hundred students that were being considered for future Hope's Peak classes.]]
*** '''You'd Expect:''' [[spoiler: They would make the most of these students, spread out their deaths through killing games and the like for maximum despair, possibly even try brainwashing some into becoming Despairs themselves.]]
*** '''Instead:''' [[spoiler: They just shove then all on a rigged roller coaster and just wastefully let eighty potential ultimates die randomly in the ensuing ride.]]

** In general, the Space arc is often the most divisive of the bunch, and not in a good way. While some considered it a good part of the series despite its lower points, others considered the arc the point when the series [[JumpingTheShark lost momentum]].

* FirstInstallmentWins: Though ''A New Luck'' is still unfinished, it has yet to live up to ''A New Hope'', and perhaps the first timeline before the reboot. Also within the original timeline, ''New Hope'' is the one that gets more attention than the sequels. Not to mention how the first entry has better pacing compared to some of the other entries.

** [[spoiler: The inclusion of expressly supernatural events in the story (ghosts, summoned creatures, etc.) might also be a subject of split opinions.]]

* BrokenBase: The decision in ''Final Horizon'' to have the fans decide who would die in the third case, [[spoiler: ultimately leading to the death of the main character Hayate]]. Some of the readers didn't particularly enjoy this decision or its outcome. [[spoiler: The fact that he actually survived mitigates this, however, but it also leads to the issue below.]]
** [[spoiler: While Hayate's "resurrection" does elicit some positive reactions, some might even consider it much of an AssPull, as there's weak foreshadowing to display this.]]

%% Franchise Original Sin: The pacing and the shifting POV; The Flat Characters

** In ''Final Horizon'', [[spoiler: Hiyoko crossed it in Chapter 28 when she remorselessly [[YourHeadAsplode detonates Sayaka's bomb]] [[FinalDeath to kill her for the (currently) last time]] even after Sayaka was trying to redeem her and asking her what Kirumi would think. Hiyoko reasons that she did it because Sayaka was a "square peg in a round hole" and she had [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness already fulfilled her purpose]]. There's also her torture and abuse of Jun, a ''two year old''.]]

%% Ringo Takagami
%% Dylan Rufheiser
%% Natalie Sheldon

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Early on [[spoiler: Mikan is strangled to death (counting towards the amount of victims in the case), but is resuscitated in time. This established that temporary deaths like that still counted as case worthy, and set up the possibility that other victims could be saved in a similar manner. The author[[labelnote:*]]presumably not wanting to cheapen things by using that too often[[/labelnote]] then proceeded to never bring that up or use it again for the rest of the story, not even at the end as a callback or twist (not counting Kokichi being left temporarily comatose after a killing in the virtual world, as that harkened back more to Class 77-B’s state in ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa 2|Goodbye Despair}}'').]]

** ''Railway of Despair'' and its setting. [[spoiler: It's a WhamEpisode for the series, but it was only done with a small cast and a short game. However, the entire train setting could have been utilized even more, as shown with films such as ''Film/{{Snowpiercer}}''.]]

** [[spoiler: For some reason, Dylan and Yukiko might have their real titles (Psychopath and Sociopath) switched out. Both suffer from Antisocial Personality Disorder in some way, however, the way they are presented is somewhat difficult. Dylan, labeled as the Ultimate Psychopath, is a bit more erratic, showing a bit more desire to get the game going and start killing people more than Yukiko. Yukiko, on the other hand, is labeled as the Ultimate Sociopath, is more calm, level-headed, and can form some level of relationship with other people, and when the entire plan is exposed, she maintains her cool. While this difference is somewhat fuzzy (see ''UsefulNotes/TheSociopath''), one definition labels psychopaths as capable of forming weak relationships and being cool-headed, whereas sociopaths are outright erratic and more impulsive. Following this definition, Dylan might have been called the Ultimate Sociopath, while Yukiko would have been labeled Ultimate Psychopath.]]

** ''Railway of Despair'' and its setting. [[spoiler: It's a WhamEpisode for the series, but it was only done with a small cast and a short game. However, the entire train setting could have been utilized even more, as shown with films such as ''Film/Snowpiercer''.]]

** ''Sea of Tranquility'''s voted ending. [[spoiler: The voted ending, Luck, ended with the most survivors, the closest there is to downplayed EverybodyLives. The other endings were a little bit tacky, but were interesting in their merit; Despair had the death of the "mastermind" Yukiko as the Despair Virus is released, which would make for a jaw-dropping bad ending. On the other hand, Hope had the death of Tae Min, sacrificing himself in order to get Shiori to survive; it fits the Danganronpa mold better. Not only that, but the survivors would also go for one last challenge, which might have revealed many other things, such as the worldbuilding and characterization, but all of it was skimmed over in the Luck ending. It would also be a bit more in line with how the tone of the canonical Danganronpa series is somehow mirrored into it (see Fridge Brilliance).]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: While it isn't that evident in ''A New Hope'', as most of them have some established backstory in canon enough for the readers to know, the [=OC=]s in succeeding stories somehow suffer from this. To name a few by entry:
** ''Final Horizon'' %% Rei, Hikaru, Ichiro
** ''Sea of Tranquility'' %% Mikhail, Miyaki, Shohei
** ''Kuma Kuma Land''
** ''House of Horrors''
** ''Railway of Despair''

* BrokenBase: The decision in ''Final Horizon'' to have the fans decide who would die in the third case, [[spoiler: ultimately leading to the death of the main character Hayate]]. Some of the readers didn't particularly enjoy this decision or its outcome. [[spoiler: The fact that he actually survived mitigates this, however, but it might also spawn a debate on whether or not he should have survived.]]

*** '''Instead:''' [[spoiler: He asks Nekomaru to cover for him to save his own skin. Then, when Nekomaru becomes even more aggravated, Teruteru tries to ''attack him.'' Nekomaru, being [[BullyingADragon way bigger and fitter than Teruteru]], ends up defeating him in a CurbStompBattle. If Hanamura valued his life rather than being a DirtyCoward, he wouldn't have ended up provoking Nidai into murdering him, and indirectly causing his [[IHaveYourWife beloved mother]] [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness to get murdered since she was no longer useful without her son]]. Even if Teruteru was